SOURCE: " 'They That Have Power to Hurt and Will Do None': Tragic Facts and Comic Fictions in Measure for Measure," in Likenesses of Truth in Elizabethan and Restoration Drama, Oxford University Press, 1972, pp. 51-78.

Below, Hawkins discusses the discrepancies between the two halves of Measure for Measure, and maintains that as tragicomedy, the play "is a magnificent failure" in that the contradictions in the play—between "equally valid claims to human devotion " and between the comic and tragic forms—may be irreconcilable.

We ourselves esteem not of that obedience, or love, or gift, which is of force.

Milton

It is an old paradox of literary history that certain works which confront their critics with conspicuous flaws (like Measure for Measure) nevertheless remain greater than similar works whichpose no serious difficulties (like Marston's The Malcontent). Indeed, the simple fact that a play which creates insoluble critical problems can still...